The second DTM race of the weekend at Hungaroring became a very dramatic affair, unfortunately not on the track, but in the pits – more about that later.
Lucas Auer had taken Pole Position ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, Paul di Resta, Edoardo Mortara and Gary Paffett. Rene Rast on P6 was the first non-Mercedes driver, while we had to look down to Timo Glock in P8 as the first BMW driver.
The race was started under sunny sky, but there was clouds drifting over the track all the time.
Auer got the best start and shot the door for Wehrlein. Gary Paffett made it past Edoardo Mortara latter on the first lap.
Timo Glock had a spin in Turn 2, where he made a light contact with Nico Müller.
Mike Rockenfeller, Joel Eriksson and Timo Glock pitted on the very first lap, doing their mandatory pitstop right away.
Augusto Farfus used the same tactics, and rejoined ahead of the three. Eriksson and Glock swapped positions, with the Swedish rookie being polite towards the now former Championship leader.
Rain started to fall on the third lap of the race, making the conditions very difficult for the drivers.
Wehrlein made an overtaking manoeuvre in Turn 1, where the car slid sideways past Auer.
The rain intensity was different around the track, so the drivers couldn’t be sure exactly how wet or dry it would be.
Glock and Eriksson started fighting again, when Glock outbraked himself at the chicane towards the back of the track.
Augusto Farfus pitted again to get rain tires, since he believed that it would pay off.
It went badly wrong when Lucas Auer came in for his pitstop. Due to the rain, the concrete in the pitlane was totally slippery like ice, and when Auer tried to turn into his designated pit area, the car just slid and slammed into the garage wall. Unfortunately two marshals got stuck between the wall and the car.
Auer’s car was pushed back so the pitstop went on, and he went back on the circuit.
One lap later we saw Edoardo Mortara do exactly the same thing in the pits. He also hit some officials. And we kid you now, Bruno Spengler did exactly the same, hitting a whole row of his mechanics.
Race Control then decided to put out the Safety Car and then red flag the race, so the ambulances could get to the people injured in the pitlane.
The safety has to be top priority, so there was a long pause until all the injured people got treated, and the race could be resumed.
There were 29 minutes left on the clock.
Since some had already pitted, some had pitted twice, while others hadn’t pitted at all, the standings were all messed up.
Pascal Wehrlein led Gary Paffett, Daniel Juncadella, Nico Müller, Jamie Green, Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann, Timo Glock, Joel Eriksson and Mike Rockenfeller. The first five drivers however hadn’t pitted yet.
The race went back green after one lap behind the SC.
Gary Paffett had big problems with his car, since he somehow hadn’t gone back on the slicks on the grid, which all the teams had been permitted to do. So he fell like a stone down the field, since everybody else was on slicks.
Rene Rast spun around, after being turned by Paffett, and dropped to the back of the field. Luckily everybody avoided the spinning car.
Juncadella took the lead from Wehrlein, while Nico Müller still was third ahead of Green. Those four still had to do their pitstop.
Marco Wittmann had worked his way into 5th, which was effectively the lead, after overtaking both Philipp Eng and Joel Eriksson.
With just over 15 minutes left of the race, Timo Glock was able to pass his teammate Eriksson. One lap later, Glock went past Eng as well.
With Juncadella, Wehrlein, Müller and Green pitting one by one, Wittmann moved into the lead on the timing screens too.
Marco Wittmann won the race ahead of teammates Timo Glock and Philipp Eng, while Mike Rockenfeller was the best Audi in P4, and Paul di Resta the best Mercedes driver in P5.
All six BMW cars were within the top 10 in today’s race – opposite to yesterday, where they were all outside top 10.
Timo Glock is back into the lead of the Championship ahead of Gary Paffett, Paul di Resta, Lucas Auer, Marco Wittmann and Edoardo Mortara.
Mercedes leads the Constructors Championship ahead of BMW and Audi Sport, while Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas leads the Teams Championship ahead of Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport and BMW Team RMR.
DTM will resume at the Norisring in three weeks time, when the asphalt and concrete streets will host the 7th and 8th rounds of this year’s Championship.